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Mother Humping Daughter

Laura32103

New Kit
Hello, my rabbit Lexus had a litter of babies the end of January and we kept one of the rabbits. Also a female. We have them in the same hutch, and they seem to get along sooo well when my boyfriend and I aren't around. We look outside at them all the time and they are just laying with each other and grooming each other and things like that. But as soon as we go out to play with them Lexus humps Steeda, i remove her, she starts humping again, and this pattern goes on and on. I called our vet and he said to get them both spayed. I called another vet for a second opinion and he said I should never get them spayed because giving them anesthesia is too risky and the humping problem is just Lexus showing domination. Does anyone have any info on this topic? Help!
 
Hiya,

Your first vet is right. Spaying will help as it gets rid of the hormones that drive the erge to establish territory and heirachy. Humping is part of sorting out the heirachy. However, it can turn more aggressive if it doesn't settle down.

Spaying is a safe operation, many rescue shelters do it routinely. However you do need a vet that is experienced with rabbits. I would never go with a vet that says it's risky - they are obviously not very good at doing it!

I would say with a good vet then it's no more risky than a cat/dog op. The only time an issue occurs it usually turns out there was an undiagnosed heart/liver problems that effect the anaesthetic.

You might find your local branch of the house rabbit society could give you some other vets local to you experienced with rabbits if you wanted another opinion :) You could also ask your vet how many ops he had done and how many losses.

Tamsin
 
Hiya,

Your first vet is right. Spaying will help as it gets rid of the hormones that drive the erge to establish territory and heirachy. Humping is part of sorting out the heirachy. However, it can turn more aggressive if it doesn't settle down.

Spaying is a safe operation, many rescue shelters do it routinely. However you do need a vet that is experienced with rabbits. I would never go with a vet that says it's risky - they are obviously not very good at doing it!

I would say with a good vet then it's no more risky than a cat/dog op. The only time an issue occurs it usually turns out there was an undiagnosed heart/liver problems that effect the anaesthetic.

You might find your local branch of the house rabbit society could give you some other vets local to you experienced with rabbits if you wanted another opinion :) You could also ask your vet how many ops he had done and how many losses.

Tamsin

When they said something about the anesthesia, i kept thinking wait a minute our cat isnt much bigger then Lexus so why would it matter! I'll have to call around to different ones in the area. What do you think about having to get both of them spayed?
 
Yep, it's probably just he doesn't see many rabbits. There are some questions to ask when you're quizzing vets here: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=84269

A good one is should rabbits be starved pre-op. The answer is no as they can't through up and need to constantly munch. Cats & dogs should be starved so that catches out a lot of less rabbit savvy vets.

There are different types of anaesthetic, I can't remember off hand which is the best one for bunnies.

I would recommend spaying. I don't know if you have heard about uterine cancer but that is very common in older female rabbits and spaying prevents that too.

Obviously no one can guarantee absolutely no risk but there are some pretty strong benefits.

Tam
 
my 4 girls are unspayed and when they see me they 'dominance hump' as they think I have food all the time - when I'm not there they are fine as I watch them through the window. It's more to do with competition for food than hormones in my opinion, so make sure you put any food in quickly and scatter it about the floor so there's no need for them to fight to get to one dish etc.

If you get them spayed you need a vet who uses isofluorane gas, which costs more but rabbits recover from it better than cat/dog anaesthetic - also you need a vet who can do invisible, dissolveable stitches, as rabbits are notorious chewers, and wearing a collar isn't good for them as they can't eat their caecal poops.

also make sure they are both spayed same day and recovered together, or you will have a major falling out due to the one smelling of the vets being rejected by the other one.
 
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